Forum:Using Talk Pages and Comments
__NOEDITSECTION__ Talk pages and comments are both available for articles on the Inspector Spacetime Wikia, though each has a distinct function from the other in this case. Since this wiki is an affectionate parody-pastiche not only of Doctor Who and science fiction television, but also of sci-fi fandom and trivia references, " Madman with a Booth" treats the first type of message-posting feature very differently from the second. Talk pages, as with other wikis, work as participatory areas where contributors can discuss creative improvements to entries in the imaginary Inspectrum. As with TV Tropes' separate discussion page for its Main Inspector Spacetime page, talk pages provide space on the wiki to brainstorm ideas, compare notes, work out discrepancies, and generally collaborate. For example, incorporating the "official" canon from Dan Harmon and Community or resolving duplicate parodies of the same characters or episodes from Doctor Who are better handled through off-page conversations than multiple editorial revisions of articles. Comments, however, are considered part of an article itself in regard to maintaining the fiction of Inspector Spacetime as a real television programme (that is, one within the Community universe). Posting a comment with quick thoughts about an entry on its page should be done "in character". (See the posts on Inspector Spacetime Confessions on Tumblr for comparison.) Fan participation is as much of the Inspectrum as Inspector Spacetime itself, after all. As always, basic netiquette applies to both message spaces (i.e. don't be a jerkass, put your best effort into what you write, be polite, and always show respect for the wiki and its community). --Travern (talk) 22:57, November 13, 2013 (UTC) All comments and questions are welcome. ---- Instructions and Guidelines The following is adapted from the Community Wikia and Wikipedia Help.--Travern (talk) 23:00, November 13, 2013 (UTC) Comment Use *To add a comment, simply fill in the input box at the bottom of the page. *You can use wikitext or rich text editing to format your text or to add a photo or video. *If you would like to reply to a comment, simply click on the reply button. Your reply will show below the comment. *Each page can have 20 comments and unlimited replies. *After 20 comments have been reached, a new page of comments will be started. Talk Page Use Accessing Talk Pages This Wiki's Templates include an automatic link to the article's talk page (as well as a "Talk Button" ). A link to a talk page can also be created automatically for an article with the code "Talk: ". Naming The talk page associated with an article is named "Talk:Example", where "Example" is the name of the article. For example, the talk page for discussion of improvements to the article List of Inspectors is named Talk:List of Inspectors. The talk page associated with a page in another namespace is named by adding "talk" after the namespace label; for example, the talk page for Sandbox is called Talk:Sandbox. Sections To discuss a new topic, start a new section by going to a new line and typing a title like this: Heading Example , with a suitable short description for the topic you wish to raise. Place new discussions at the bottom of the page. You can also use the tab labeled "Add topic", at the top of a talk page, which performs these steps automatically. This adds a new item number to the "Contents" box on the page you are editing. To respond to a discussion already in progress, add your comment below the last entry in the discussion. If you want to respond to a specific comment, you can place your response directly below it. When doing this, keep in mind the advice given below about indentation. Sign your contributions You should always sign and date your contributions on all talk pages. To do this easily, type four tildes (~~~~) at the end of your comment, or just click the signature button on the row of buttons above the edit box. This will be automatically converted into a user signature and the date and time. (You can change the form of your signature using your .) Indentation Indentation is used to keep talk pages readable. Comments are indented to show whether they are replies to other comments, and if so, which ones. Comments are indented using one or more initial colons (:). Each colon represents one level of indentation. You will see these colons in the wikitext when editing a talk page, but when viewing the page itself you will see the indents. The first comment in a section will have no colons before it. When you reply to a statement, you should use one more colon than the number that appear in the statement you're replying to. For example, if you're replying to a statement that has 2 colons before it, your response should have 3 colons before it. Examples of Indentation The following is an example of a talk page discussion using indentation. The text typed in the edit box is shown on the left, and the resulting display on the right. If you wish to reply to a comment that has already been replied to, place your response below the last response, while still only adding one colon to the number of colons preceding the statement you're replying to. In this example, note that Bob, Carol and Dave are each responding to Alice's comment. Note how equally-indented comments are displayed in one paragraph. Bob and Carol's replies are in the same paragraph. But a new paragraph is the normal style for when the speaker changes. So to produce the normal distinction between speakers (to avoid confusion) add a linebreak first as Dave has done. The next example shows a more complex discussion. Even though Bob has responded to Alice first, and Erin responded to Bob, we can still easily see that Carol's comment is meant to be in response to Alice's original question: Note that if your comment consists of more than one paragraph, you must repeat the colons at the start of each paragraph. An alternative is to type the new paragraph tag in the wikitext instead of starting a new line. When a long discussion has many indents, the discussion may be awkward to read, particularly on smaller screens. Eventually, for everyone's convenience, a replying editor will "start over" by responding without any colons at all.